Leftist dimagi naxal Prakash Raj got into a heated exchange with a journalist while responding to questions about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu.
The reporter pointed out that Kerala had gone through SIR and subsequently formed a government, before questioning Prakash Raj’s position. When the journalist challenged his response, Prakash Raj interrupted him and accused him of trying to put words in his mouth.
“Hey, listen to what I’m saying—just a minute, hold on. Don’t put words in my mouth or force an answer on me; I’m not falling for that, my friend. I’ve been clear about this from the start—I’m not playing that game. You can do your research later; I’m telling you the root facts… I’m the one with the answer… Are you going to let me give the answer or not?”
When the journalist asked whether the 74 lakh voters reportedly deleted from Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls were actually present on the rolls and whether the figure included deceased voters, Prakash Raj said he was looking into the data.
“I’m looking into it; I’m pulling the data out right now…”
When the reporter pointed out that Prakash Raj had cited the figure of 7.4 million, he pushed back.
“It wasn’t me; that data came from the Election Commission. That came from the Election Commission, my friend…”
The journalist then questioned whether those people were still alive. Prakash Raj initially responded, “They must be alive…”
As the reporter continued to question whether there had been complaints from people who were unable to vote, Prakash Raj said, “Yes, they are there… They exist… I’m here. Thousands came..”
He then questioned the journalist’s position, asking, “Are you speaking on behalf of the BJP or the Election Commission, let’s make that clear, then I can reply accordingly. Don’t play that game with me. It’s the Election Commission stating there are 13crore voters; that’s what I’m questioning.”
The reporter pressed him on whether all 13 crore voters were actually alive and on the electoral rolls. Prakash Raj then acknowledged that the figure could include deceased and duplicate entries.
“Not all of them; wait a minute… Out of 13 crore, maybe a couple of crore would have died —I’m just saying, duplicates let’s assume it’s around one crore. What about the remaining 10 crore? I am talking about the remaining 10 crore.”
Prakash Raj then alleged that genuine voters were being removed from the rolls and cited his own experience.
“I’ve lived in this very house for 40 years, yet someone decided to remove my name—on what grounds? 65-70% absent, shifted. They did not go to the moon nor came inside from abroad. How can you remove them? —on what grounds?”
He went on to question the verification process and gave the example of an assistant whose name had allegedly been removed.
“Did you remove it because of a spelling mistake? And after removing it, do you expect every citizen to come out and stand before you and explain where their father was born or when they voted in 2002? There’s an assistant of mine—they removed his name. They asked about 2002, but he said, “Sir, I’ve only been voting since 2005.” They asked about 2002, but his parents had passed away. Who is he supposed to ask? That’s just not possible. How can you do this? Why are you doing this? Why are you inflicting such confusion and hardship on the people?”
Prakash Raj also raised the case of tribal communities, alleging that people without conventional addresses could face difficulties during the SIR process.
“Take a tribal community—say, 200 families. Their voting rights were revoked; they were asked for an address, and they said, “Sir, we don’t have an address.” A tribal person—who might not be literate—says, “Sir, I didn’t get the application form.””
He questioned why the process was being centralised and why electoral data was being moved to Delhi.
“You check the ASDDO list, and then, while the SIR process is underway, why do you centralize it? Why not leave it to the ERO or BLO? If they had handled the entries directly, the records would have been accurate. Why does the data have to go to Delhi?”
Prakash Raj also questioned the Election Commission’s transition to ECI-Net, asking, “Why did the ECI switch from the system used since 2016 to ‘ECI-Net’ in 2026? Even when other Election Commissioners pointed out that this was a mistake, why did you proceed with the change?”
He further alleged that errors were not being corrected even when voters submitted documents.
“Why are you saying it now after deleting so many voters? Today, when a poor person submits a document regarding a notice they received, why do you simply file it away without correcting the error? That is what democracy is about—addressing these issues.”
Prakash Raj then went further, alleging a possible conspiracy behind the exercise and accusing the BJP of providing false information about Muslim voters.
“I am questioning whether there is a conspiracy here. Because of the mistakes you made, 13 crore votes were removed, causing hardship to the poor. You are deleting the votes of Muslims based on false information provided by the BJP. Why target the voiceless poor and the uneducated?”
He also questioned the time allotted for the Form 6 process and whether such a large-scale exercise could realistically be completed within a month.
“Why rush the Form 6 application process? Why do it all in just one month? You tell me—is it possible to process the data of six crore people in Tamil Nadu in a single month?”
He argued that the process should have been given more time and greater public awareness.
“Why didn’t you take adequate time? It is a massive undertaking. You did this without informing the public or creating any awareness; even educated people are struggling to understand what is happening. What was the necessity for such a move? Can you really decide the status of six crore people in just one month—especially when you already had an annual update system in place?”
Prakash Raj concluded by linking his concerns to the electoral roll exercise in West Bengal and argued that even a single wrongful deletion was unacceptable.
“I am asking you these questions: if such actions were taken, there must be an underlying reason—after all, an entire government fell in Bengal. You removed 38 lakh people from the rolls, claiming they didn’t vote; yet, those people are alive. Why wouldn’t they approach the court? Just looking at that figure of 38 lakh or however many were excluded—many have had to run from pillar to post seeking legal redress. You examined a sample of 100,000 of these cases, and 90 percent were found to be errors. On what basis did you remove them? It is impossible to verify this properly in just one month, and those 38 lakh people are still alive. Deleting even a single vote is an offense; removing a single voter is a crime.”
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